Why are car rentals so expensive in Ft Myers?
 

I'm taking my family to Naples (flying into RSW - Ft Myers). It was supposed to be a cheap mini vacation using FF miles and a buddy's condo. I've been checking car rental rates for the past month and they are outrageous. The cheapest I could find (7/17 12am - 7/21 6am) was $92/day for an economy class car. I've rented Jaguars for half that! My bid for $55 on Priceline for an economy car was rejected.

Is there really that much demand in RSW that they can command those kinds of rates??

Are you only looking on Priceline? If so, try somewhere else. For instance Orbitz is showing availability for those dates from Alamo, National and Budget in the $60 a day range. Websites for the rental agencies may have better deals.


This is about off season as it's possible to get, so inventory of available cars will be very low.

Have you looked in the various car rental fora here for discount codes? Using one of the better known Avis codes for Florida rentals I can see a Full Size car for around $40/day. No mini-vans available from Avis so that's not going to work, but there are a few decent options still out there.